What is the difference between PLPC and LPC?

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At Change, Inc. there are two kinds of state-licensed Professional Counselors: 

• Licensed Professional Counselors (LPC’s) — These counselors have completed a Master’s degree or higher in counseling from a regionally accredited college/university, typically with 60-semester hours reflecting the CACREP curriculum standards, and an internship/field experience consisting of 6 semester hours (and several hundred client hours) in the practice of counseling.   They have also completed a counseling residency that (in Missouri) entails at least 2 years and 3,000 hours of post-master’s continuous counseling experience (full or part-time), to be completed within 60 months, under the weekly supervision of someone who meet’s the state’s requirements for clinical supervisors.  Also, at Change, Inc., even after the residency, LPC’s are required to continue to engage in bi-weekly clinical supervision for support and clinical growth.

   

• Provisionally-Licensed Professional Counselors (PLPC’s) — These counselors have completed the educational requirements and the field experience requirements to obtain their Master’s degrees as described above, but are as yet in the middle of their counseling residency period.  This means that PLPC’s practice under weekly clinical supervision as mentioned above, but the supervisor is not in the session.  Instead, each week the clinical supervisor and PLPC meet separately and discuss each of the PLPC’s cases to provide the benefit of their experience and guidance.  Think of a PLPC like you would think of a Medical Resident you might be treated by at Saint Louis University or BJC (staffed by Wash U Medical Residents) — they have the same skills, training, etc., but are still in their residency period.